AI-mounted communicative robot pet goes on sale in Japan

The Tokyo-based tech venture Groove X on Tuesday unveiled an artificial-intelligence equipped robot pet that can sense people's emotions and communicate with them.
 
The doll-like robot named "LOVOT" will be shipped in the autumn of 2019 as a set of two with a price tag of 598,000 yen ($5,300) plus a monthly service fee expected to be around 20,000 yen. A single LOVOT will be available in 2020 and will cost 349,000 yen plus a monthly fee of around 10,000 yen.
 
The big eyed robot, featuring a bevy of sensors, recognizes its owners' facial expressions and obeys commands, Groove X said.
 
Weighing 3 kilograms and standing 43 centimeters tall, the mechanical pet has an internal camera and learns the layout of its household so it can move around without crashing into furniture.
 
The name LOVOT comes from a combination of the words love and robot, as it is designed to be "a new home robot that stirs your instinct to love," according to the company.
 
Groove X was founded in 2015 by Kaname Hayashi, who was involved in the making of SoftBank Group Corp.'s humanoid robot Pepper.


 

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